The Best Sneakers of 2022 (2024)

In 2022, the Terminator, a collegiate classic that harks back to the Big East's hard-nosed heyday, finally made its return in the colorway that put it on the map. It would've been a shoe-in (sorry) for this list off its pedigree alone, but the goes-with everything silhouette clinched the title.

In a year dominated by early 2000s running shoes, the Asics Gel-Kayano 14 remained the one to beat. JJJJound and a slew of other high-wattage collaborators dropped versions that garnered plenty of attention, but the Japanese brand’s link-up with Ice Studios, the insider-y label founded by Renell Medrano, earned its place on this list by taking the red-hot silhouette and drenching it in a tidal wave of cool blue hues.

Wacky, warped shapes are all the rage in sneakers this year, but Brain Dead's unabashedly Y2K-inspired collaboration with Oakley is one of the best riffs on the genre we’ve seen in a minute.

Is there a single force more responsible for the prolonged moment the Samba’s enjoying than Grace Wales Bonner? The British designer and the Three Stripes go together like PB & J—and the results of their partnership look just as tasty. These with one of the duo’s best-in-class, retro-doused tracksuits? Smashing, bruv.

Sneakers, like a primo cut of beef, tend to get better with age. So the South Korean streetwear experts at thisisneverthat took that reasoning to its logical extreme, collaborating with New Balance on a hulking, dad-esque M1960R equipped with pre-yellowed soles. In theory, that should yield a sneaker that looks less like the type of shoe your brother keeps tucked away on a shrine in his bedroom and more like the everyday beaters your old man has been rocking for decades. And in practice, that’s exactly what happened—and we wouldn't have it any other way.

For decades, the Air Jordan 2 was the forgotten child of his Airness's picture-perfect family, wedged between the legendary, sneaker culture-birthing AJ1 and the much-loved AJ3. But thanks to a slew of tasteful collabs (taste, after all, has always been what the 2s have going for them), the silhouette is finally getting the shine it deserves. After linking with Jordan to take on the 1 and 3 earlier last year, A Ma Maniére, the James Whitner-founded sneaker powerhouse, set its eyes on the 2—with typically superlative results.

Much like the NBA legend they're named for, the Air Penny has always been an underground fan favorite. Stüssy’s latest riff on the silhouette yanks the chunky high-tops firmly into 2022 courtesy of a sleek, all-black design and an added dose of utilitarian flavor.

When Nike and Tom Sachs got together in 2017, they birthed an instant classic. But on the aftermarket, the Mars Yard 2.0, the result of their first collaboration, commands a legendarily high sticker price, and forking over that kind of dough for his kicks didn't sit well with the New York-based artist. So this year, he linked with the Swoosh on a sneaker that remains mercifully available for less than an arm and a leg—maybe a couple of toes, at most.

The hottest trend in Jordans this year? Trashed, thrashed, and thoroughly worn-in AJ1s. With the Lost & Founds, Nike saved you the effort of dirtying up a pair yourself, dropping a pair of Chicago-indebted 1s with pre-yellowed accents and subtle cracking by the leather, the easiest way to approximate the look fresh out of the box.

Just when you think you'd had enough gorp-adjacent exposure to last you a lifetime—the kids on TikTok are showering in their Arc'teryx jackets!—the genre pulls you back in. The ACS Pro is a brand new style from red-hot Salomon, and it's already a strong contender for sneaker of the year. Dressing like a swerve-y woodland-bound nomad never looked so damn cool.

Introduced by the Swoosh in 1999, the Air Kukini is a fever dream of futuristic design that still looks ahead of its time. Which also means its laceless neoprene uppers and translucent footcage—done up in the slightly amphibious, downrighty slimy colorway it initially debuted in—looks right on the money in 2022.

In the sneaker world, local exclusives are a tried-and-true method of drumming up hype. Rarely, however, does that location extend to Canada, let alone the quaint city of Montreal, Quebec. Luckily for our friends up North, though, Montreal also happens to be the home of Justin Saunders and the crew of design savants at JJJJound. Saunders and New Balance teamed up a few times in 2022, but, naturally, the sneakers that everyone wanted most were the ones the least people could get: the duo’s chocolate-y 990v3s.

Gucci’s take on the Gazelle delivers everything you'd expect from Alessandro Michele's never-enough aesthetic, from the rich golden hues to the all-over-print logo. Because when you're dropping $850 on a widely-available Adidas silhouette that usually costs an eighth of the price, it's important to let people know they're not just regular Adidas.

2022 yielded a glut of worthy contenders for fashion soothsayers looking to identify Asics’ next big hit. But no silhouette did more to solidify the brand’s sneaker bona fides than the Nimbus 9, a style that vied with the Kayano 14 as the running shoe du jour of the extremely online menswear set. There are plenty of eye-grabbing versions to choose from, but the best of the lot comes from Asics’ low-key collaboration with Wind and Sea, the upstart Japanese imprint founded by Takashi Kumagi. Are they the flashiest kicks on this list? Probably not. Will they earn you the highest amount of knowing nods from the taste gods you trust most? Definitely.

Earlier this year, Chicago-based Notre linked once again with Vans, imbuing the OG Style 36 (also known as the Old Skool) with new life via premium suede uppers accented by the retailer's signature handshake logo.

Since Teddy Santis took over New Balance’s Made in USA line, the Aimé Leon Dore mastermind has kept a relatively tight lid on his vision. Until recently. The first grip of Santis-designed sneakers hit stores earlier this year, and they’re as good as expected. The best of them, like the 990v3s that dropped in June, marry Santis’ knack for subtle color play and thoughtful textures with the chunky silhouettes that made New Balance the first name in the dad shoe game.

Sold via auction in support of the late Virgil Abloh's charity foundation, these ultra-rare AF1s—featuring Vuitton's signature damier prints—raised over a whopping $25 million for the designer's “Post-Modern” Scholarship Fund. They have never (and likely will never) see a general public release, but that only adds to their allure.